Friday, 31 August 2007

The Daily Star is in a righteous fury over a comic version of Diana's death which appeared in German newspaper Der Bild yesterday.

The strip, which the Star calls "a sick joke", is by a couple of ancient American comic book creators Sid Jacobson, 77, and Ernie Colon, 75. These two old duffers also knocked out a comic book version of the 9-11 report, although the Star says they "usually work on the likes of Spider-Man's adventures".

At least The Star remembered to hyphenate Spider-Man.

I was momentarily shocked by the first panel which I thought showed a kilo of cocaine flying off Dodi's dashboard. Sadly the caption reveals the vehicle to be a boat not a speeding car. Bah.

Thursday, 30 August 2007

" If you're a fan, it's like a lost cover. That's what it feels like, and that's what we were going for."

So says Zack Snyder of the Dave Gibbons poster currently doing the rounds.

Hurrm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as buzzed as the next fan to see Gibbons drawing new Watchmen stuff, but this image is nothing like a Watchmen cover.

This......is like a Watchmen cover. The Gibbons poster is more like the opening panel of a missing issue. That's still exciting, but I worry slightly that the director of the Watchmen film doesn't know what makes a Watchmen cover a Watchmen cover.

Sunday, 26 August 2007

Yes True Believers, the stress of having a premature baby in a special care unit is taking it's toll at the moment.

So GARGGGH!

Anyway, a few bits and bobs for you

Firstly a link to an interview with Zack Snyder in which he talks about Watchmen some more. Nice to see Dave Gibbons getting involved and I'm looking forward to the Nixon prosthetic. Interview HERE..............................................................................................................................................................................

I made a flying visit to Forbidden Planet on Friday to pick up some comics.

As is my way when hitting FP, I flitted ever so briefly into the role playing section where I was stopped in my tracks by possibly the lamest looking D&D expansion EVER!

Perleasssse! How may adolescent boys (I assume they still make up the vast majority of D&D's player base) are going to want to role play Shakespeare plays? Uggh.

If "The taming of the shrew" was in fact called "The taming of the orc" I could see a case for this nonsense. As it is though its a ridiculous idea.

I guarantee this monstrosity will sit and gather dust on FP's shelves for years.

As you can imagine, I'm somewhat behind on my comics reading at the moment. I did manage to peel issue #2 of Matt Fraction's excellent new comic The Order of my teetering "to read stack"though. Fun stuff. Most notable for being the first and probably last Marvel comic to include a Julie Burchill quote. Now there's someone you never thought you'd see in spandex.

Speaking of the tight shiny stuff, I'm heartened to see that "SodamYat" has overtaken "Guys in spandex" as the number #1 search term by which people find their way to L L C.

The arrival of Green Lantern Corps #15 (or The Sinestro Corps War #5 as it will come to be known) has led to an upsurge of people hitting this site in their quest for more knowledge on the man who would be Ultimate Green Lantern.

Sadly I've given you all the info I have on your favourite Daxamite at the moment, but I do recommend this website to anyone who fancies trawling for more.

Thursday, 23 August 2007

I've figured out why I can't find the Brian Bolland art in Golden Heroes. The copy I bought on e-bay has had the Bolland pages removed. Oh well, that's what you get for 1p I suppose.

Fortunately I've managed to track down the stuff Bolland drew for the game. Or at least I think I have.

The following images appear in The Art of Brian Bolland, and are described by Bolland himself as drawings done for Games Workshop. I think I remember them from my original copy, but we are going back 22 years, and the mind can play tricks...

Missing artwork from Golden Heroes?

Cover to Legacy of Eagles

Unused art from Legacy of Eagles?

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURE

Since we're on a bit of a Brian Bolland super-hero tip today, here are some scans of unused Bolland designs for the cover of the Fighting Fantasy classic Appointment with F.E.A.R.

And just in case there's anybody out there who hasn't seen it, here's the design that did get picked...

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

Bless my mum, she dug out some of my old schoolwork and brought it over to show me. She liked all the cute poems and pictures of cats, cars and dragons, but as far as I'm concerned there is only one piece of work worth preserving.

Ladies and gentlemen from the mind of a 10 year old who had just read the rulebook to D&D basic for the first time, comes a short but fantastic tale of dungeoneering complete with footnotes (please note, if you have trouble reading the scans you can click on them to ramp up the fantasy).

1. No need for a question mark here. I know you are frightened and I'm just reminding you of the fact.

2. Note the use of the term "magic user" instead of "wizard". This is D&Dese. Any roleplayer who wants to be taken seriously (a contradiction in terms I know) MUST call wizards magic users.

3. Halflings are shit. At the age of 10 I was firmly of the opinion that girls were shit too. Hence the "Woman halfling". Also, note that I don't even give this character a proper D&D name.

4. I was confident that my teacher Mrs Jones had not seen Hawk the Slayer and thus felt comfortable putting him in my story.

5. Of course.

6. "You are weak woman halfling!"

7. Its my story and I'm biased, but this is fucking amazing!

8. "You are weak and confused woman halfling!"

9. No shit Sherlock.

10. I don't know about you, but I am so scared I just shit my pants.

11. Interesting notes on the physiognomy of Hell Devils.

12. "Shut the fuck up you weak, confused, stupid woman halfling!"

13. Exploding Hell Devils = AWESOME

14. I should have ended the story with Hawk punching Elginunconscious again.

Monday, 20 August 2007

Saturday, 18 August 2007

Its been many years since I threw a D20 in anger, but the thought of certain roleplaying games still get the old nerd juices going. I played a fair few of these things when they ruled the world in the '80s - D&D, Runequest, Judge Dredd, Paranoia, Star Trek...aaaah happy days. I think my fave was probably Golden Heroes though.

Released by Games Workshop when it was at the height of its powers, Golden Heroes was a super-hero RPG which had two superbly illustrated rulebooks. I lost my original copy many years ago, but recently bought a new set for 1p on e-bay.

The list of artists who worked on the game includes Alan Davis, Brett Ewins and Brendan McCarthy. Theres also a credit for Brian Bolland, but I can't seem to find any of his stuff in the books.

Anyway here are a few of the best bits. Nice curios. I know Alan Davis has done a lot of work in super-hero comics, but Ewins and McCarthy never really made any impact in spandex, so its interesting to see them doing it here. The Davis stuff is great, but I particularly like the Ewins stuff. Apart from the one headshot I've included here McCarthy's contributions all have a futuristic/sci-fi theme, I get the feeling he was loathe to draw super-heroes.

Thursday, 16 August 2007

In need of some reading material to break up the moments of intense anxiety over my girlfriend and newborn baby, I turned to the hospital shop's comic rack where, aside from Fireman Sam and Bob the Builder (just when did mundane folk with no superpowers become comic book heroes?), 2000ad was the only comic on offer.

I've been rather on off with Tharg's organ lately. Its a very patchy product which seems unsure of itself. The format worked fine when it was aimed at 9-14 year olds, but the powers that be are obviously trying to attract a more mature audience these days, filling the mag with uber violence and bad language.

The trouble is that the stories themselves aren't very good. The latest prog #1500 features a passable Judge Dredd tale, but the other two offerings are poor efforts filled with clunky dialogue and unnecessary exposition.

This is particularly disappointing given that the first is penned by Pat Mills and the second by Ian Edginton. Both writers are keen to give us a gritty, relevant tales but it's hard to do that when they are forced to write their stories as seven page episodes with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter.

That format worked well in the old days when 2000ad was aimed squarely at a youthful audience, but it really doesn't work when you're trying to tell real stories. If Mills really wants to tell politically relevant sci-fi tales he needs to put out a bigger magazine or devote each issue to one story. As it stands the comic just isn't working.

The other option would be to cut out all the bad language and disembowelments and return to the days when the magazine was written for kids but still managed to slip a healthy dollop of satire and violence under the radar. I'd prefer that to the current mishmash.

Can I be really, really honest? I'm not a great fan of Romita’s art and its niggled me since the beginning of the series. There I said it. And I do apologise to any fan of his art but…. Hang on.. No I don’t. I'LL SMASH YOU ALL…

Dave smash

I gotta say growing up in the 70s and reading Hulk comics, (and actually thinking that one day I might become the Hulk if I could just find a Gamma bomb that was just about to detonate) Sal Buscema always got that Hulk snarl just right. Sal Buscema’s art has waves of nostalgia breaking against me like Im a Thai beach hut in a tsunami. I love the guy.

One comic book series I have been enjoying is Marvel’s ‘Illuminati’. Consisting of a rather motley crowd: Black Bolt, Reed Richards, Charles Xavier, Tony Stark, Namor, and Doctor Strange making up the roster. Apparently these wily bunch of grey templed septuagenarians have been pulling strings and fiddling with knobs behind the curtains of the Marvel Universe since forever.

This comic series recounts a few of their ‘greatest’ adventures from Marvels illustrious past. I wont spoil anything but I bet my penny to a shiny gold nugget that most marvel-lites will love it… Issue 4 is a corker, with the team discussing their various girlfriends and sexual conquests. ‘Ol Starkey boy wins hands down, but makes a bit of a faux pas when admitting he shagged a hideously disfigured woman who wears an iron mask to stop people vomiting. TOP THAT!

Okay that it from me folks! Special Thanks to Dom for letting me air more of my mealy mouthed opinions… D.F."